The common denominator of this new Digitmovies
production, besides M° Stelvio Cipriani, the composer
of all three scores, is Horror.
The horror generated through the obsessive jealousy a daughter
has of her father distinguishes the plot of the movie Il Medaglione
Insanguinato directed by Massimo Dallamano in 1975:
The TV journalist Michael Williams, played by Richard Johnson,
leaves London and sets out for Italy with his daughter Emily
(Nicoletta Elmi) and his housekeeper Jill Perkins (Joanna
Cassidy),to realize a documentary in Spoleto about the presence
of the devil in painting.
In a '700 villa, which has already been the scene of a dramatic
event, the scholar is fascinated by a painting which is said
to be made by Satan.
The man also gives his daughter a medallion whose mysterious
powers will unleash an inevitable tragedy.
Thanks to a suggestive setting and a plot halfway between
the supernatural horror and the psychological drama this Dallamano
movie is considered by many as one of the best horror movies
produced in Italy.
In fact the audience will remain in doubt whether the tragic
events are unleashed by mysterious powers or by a mind blinded
by jealousy.
The horror of the manipulation of the mind is present in
Malocchio directed in 1974 by Mario Siciliano and re-released
in Italy in 1976 with the title Eroticofollia.
The movie which stars Jorge Rivero, Anthony Steffen, Pilar
Velasquez and Richard Conte tells the story of a young playboy
(Jorge Rivero), who, plagued by mysterious nightmares, commits
atrocious murders.
Malocchio is also a fine mix of satanic horror and thriller.
The protagonist's nightmare is particularly distressing because
of the obsessive presence of a man with red eyes and naked
people of a sect which calls to mind the black masses in the
Sergio Martino thriller Tutti I Colori Del Buio.
The horror of death and homicide is presented with impressive
realism in Voci Dal Profondo of 1990, the penultimate movie
of the late and lamented Lucio Fulci.
After the death of her father (Duilio Del Prete), an avid
and perverse man, Rosy Mainardi (Karin Huff) suffers from
sudden and unexplainable visions.
During her dreams a man confides her that he is not dead by
natural causes, but that he has been killed by one of his
relatives.
While the girl investigates, the soul of Mainardi appears
in a dream the relatives have, causing them horrible nightmares.
In Voci Dal Profondo there is the entire film universe of
Fulci, the ferocity of the human nature, the flow of time
and, especially, the relatives nightmares of the killed man
are staged with horrible killings, living dead, etc.
The obsession with death, in the last years of Fulci's life,
is represented by a single, but penetrating element:
The various phases of the man's decomposition in the grave
while the plot reaches its epilogue.
To realize this CD we have used all which has survived.
In fact in the case of Il Medaglione Insanguinato the only
master tape still available was the one used for the 45 rpm
single issued at the time of the film's release with the two
tracks Baby Death and Emily's Studio.
They were released for the very first time as part of the
now out of print CD Fantafestival Volume 4 in 1993, but as
the sessions master tapes have been totally lost it was never
possible to release a CD with the complete OST.
Finally our perserverance in finding the elements has paid
off to us and the fate wanted that only very recently a stereo
¼ master tape could be discovered which contained 13
takes (about 22') from the OST!
Emily's Studio, the romantic and magic main theme for guitar,
female choir and strings is introduced in (Tr. 1) and then
reprised with slow variations with drums (Tr. 5), without
drums (Tr. 10), in a pop vein (Tr. 3) and in the single version
(Tr. 14) which was in fact an edit of two tracks (here Tr.
1 and Tr. 3).
This motif is alternated with a baroque theme called Baby
Death which we can hear with the solo piano - as in all his
OSTs played by Stelvio Cipriani himself - in Tr. 2, Tr. 11,
with fast tempo (Tr. 6), in a harpsichord version (Tr. 8)
and in the pop version of the 45 rpm single (Tr. 13).
Two elegant lounge pieces for solo piano complete the OST
(Tr. 4 and Tr. 9) which together with the single tracks has
a total time of 30:04.
Unfortunately, for Malocchio we were not able to find the
master tapes which actually are a case worthy of the X-Files,
but the hunt continues because the score (as the movie itself)
is really interesting.
For this CD we have used the stereo master tape (5:31), properly
restored in digital form, of the original 45 rpm single with
the tracks Astaroth (Tr. 15), a really groovy lounge theme
with the perfect Cipriani sound (it accompanies the scene
of the orgy-party in an house), and Bloody Love (Tr. 16) which
is used in the love sequence under the shower, an often recurring
motif in the movie with different variations.
These two tracks had previously appeared in CD format only
on Japanese compilations.
This Horror music triptych is completed by the electronic
OST composed by Cipriani for Voci Dal Profondo directed by
Lucio Fulci in 1990 and we have used the complete stereo master
tapes (37:39) preserved in the RCA archives.
The composer has written a tense music prologue for the scene
of the protagonist's nightmare which precedes the Main Titles,
an ancient lullaby with children's choir (Tr. 17) and suspenseful
and magic music (Tr. 18) which is alternated with dramatic,
dark and mysterious themes (Tr. 21, Tr. 23, Tr. 27), a sentimental
motif with a pop flavour (Tr. 27) and a recurrent rock theme
with liturgical organ (Tr. 28) which also appears in the End
Titles. |
